Traditionally satellite communications are conducted using a relatively small group of dedicated ground stations using dish antennas which physically moved in azimuth and elevation to track satellites as they passed over head. This infrastructure is expensive to build, maintain, and operate, and is inherently limited in the total number of daily accesses, because the antenna is only capable of communicating with one satellite at a time. Consequently, communication with multiple satellites at the same time is impossible. This will become more evident as hundreds to thousands of SMALLSATS, NANOSATS, and PICOSATS are launched into space over the next decade. In addition to physically handling many satellites simultaneously, the electronic infrastructure must also be upgraded to handle simultaneous communication to ensure uplink of vital mission instructions and the downlink of valuable data.